March 28, 2024

The Illusion of Life: Animation for UI/UX Design

A few old men working for Walt Disney back in the early 20th century came up with a dozen working properties for lifelike animation. These “12 principles of animation” have lasted for decades and continue to hold a major influence over the animation industry.

It’s only in recent years that we’ve seen animation play a serious role in regards to interface design & user experience. Designers are using tools like Adobe After Effects to bring interfaces to life. When first getting started this can be a daunting task, especially to someone with no background in animation.

Thankfully the digital world makes this a lot easier, and the Internet makes learning a no-brainier.

So what are these 12 principles? They represent how you should animate objects(or people, animals, etc) to behave in “expected” ways that feel more lifelike to the viewer. In real life we know that humans animate in a certain way. But we also know that buttons, keys, and movable objects behave in their own unique ways.

If you’re interested to learn more UI/UX animation then this video is a great place to start. You’ll come to understand the raw fundamentals of animation which will help you plan out your decisions much more carefully.

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Jake is a creative writer and UI designer by trade. You can follow him on twitter @jakerocheleau or learn more at his personal website JakeRocheleau.com.

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